short films

I was perusing atomfilms.com and ifilm.com for some decent independent short films (trying to find some inspiration and the right tone for my own script) and I stumbled across this gem: “4 A.M. Open All Night”. In 15 minutes, the author manages some fantastic characterization and seriously sharp wit. What really grabbed me was the timing by the actors… perfect.

pre-tios-taco-tuesday thoughts

Every once in a while, a particular quote from somone in my past will resurface, and it makes me realize that throughout my life, I have been surrounded by people who had some special insight or wisdom that has just stuck with me.
It occurred to me today that I had been thinking a lot about a poem on love that a classmate of mine wrote in high school. (I think it was about the same time as David wrote the infamous one about spam…. the meat, not the mail.) Jo-Lynn wrote about how real love is not blind, how it sees all the blemishes and imperfections and flaws, and embraces these things as part of the individual.
Her poem actually echos a lot of my own thoughts and serves to answer the question that I had to ask myself getting engaged. Why is it right? Because after the mushy stuff has faded a bit and the glasses have defogged a bit, we’re left with the truth of each other’s humanity… that we’re not perfect. And for the first time in my relatively minimal dating experience, it doesn’t bother me, or make me want to cut and run. Just the opposite in fact. Those quirks end up making me feel more comfortable with who I am. And I’ve never doubted that annoyances… because that’s only what they are… are only temporary, but our relationship remains.
Mushy, eh?

wrapping up a long week

Polished off a very long week (worked about 80 hrs) with two shows with the Cats at Art Fair. We had a 10am show at Liberty and Ashley downtown, and then hoofed it over to the UofM Art Museum for a 1pm show. Had a great audience, sold a bunch of CDs, and had a lot of feedback that we sounded really good. And the Art Musuem said that we had the biggest draw of any group they’ve had performing there since they started the Art Fair shows. Cool beans.
The in-laws-to-be also came out for the show and really enjoyed it. Ann, John, and Sam were out for the morning show, and Marie and Kevin stopped by for the afternoon one. And two guys from the HVA bike team made it to both shows while one duty “patrolling” the Fair.

Perfect day

Enpo Kenshu is a condensed Kenshu program where instead of having one-hour classes every saturday, it’s a four-hour class once a month – two hours saturday night and two hours sunday morning.
From the Aikido Yoshokai head office:
“Kenshu is open to students of 5th Kyu and above, and is an intensive form of Aikido training which involves both toshu and buki training; study of Budo philosophy as well as demanding physical training; and study of Aikido teaching method. When a student completes the course, he or she receives a Graduation Diploma and satisfies one of the requirements to become a certified AYANA instructor. Kenshu course meets every Saturday for twenty months, and should be considered a serious commitment by those students wishing to be accepted in the new class. …”

Years from now, or probably even days from now, I won’t remember much about yesterday. No one thing that happened will stand out in my mind as a defining moment in my life. But for all its … normalness, yesterday was a perfect day.
This was an Enpo Kenshu weekend, so I got my butt completely thoroughly kicked (or thrown, as it were) for two hours saturday night and again yesterday morning. It was my first time actively training in Aikido since my surgery, and it went better than expected. That is to say, after it was all done, I could still walk.
After Aikido, Marie, Sam, and I went to church at St. Thomas and then brunch at The Broken Egg, a breakfast cafe downtown Ann Arbor with notoriously good food and notoriously questionable service.
After a quick change of clothes, it was back to the ranch chateau shack house to mow the grass while Marie studied for her upcoming Paramedic National Registry exam. I managed to get the grass cut in record time, due mostly to the fact that it was so dry that it hasn’t grown much in the last week. Then I spent the rest of the early evening tearing apart and rebuilding a workbench that I had started last year. My goal was originally to work on the motorcycle, but then I realized that I had no real workspace. To both my and Marie’s surprise, I managed to construct a decent, stable frame of exactly the right dimensions for the plywood sheets that I was using as shelves. After the requisite round of self-congratulatory Toolman Tim-esque grunts, we decided we were hungry, so it was off to Red Robin for a couple burgers.
Then, to wrap up the evening, we caught the late showing of “SpiderMan 2″ at Showcase, who to my surprise, actually accepted the coupons that we got for free movie passes from Red Robin. I agree with everyone else that I’ve talked to about the movie… it was at least as good as the original, and still very true to the comic. It succeeded again where many other comicbook-to-movie adaptations have failed… developing characters and relationships that draw the audience into the movie, instead of making the audience feel like they’re sitting in a movie theater staring at scanned pages from the comicbook (aka, “The Hulk”).
I worked hard, played hard (well… I built something at least), ate well, and relaxed well… and all with the best company. So now I’m sore, but very content and happy. It was a perfect day.

shiny

I’ve finally gotten around to answering the hoards of people who have been clamouring for pics of the ring. Okay… both of ‘em. I particularly like this picture because it makes the rock look much larger than it actually is.

At the Lake

Going back to Lexington this afternoon for a day on the beach. Marie will be at Willo’s shower tomorrow, and then we’re back to Ann Arbor for my Kenshu class tomorrow night. Seems like these full weekends finish before they even start.

And as a sidenote, I’ve learned how to add stuff like this. Spiffy.

In weblog news, I changed the layout slightly, and added the new banner image. I’ve also added a “Day-to-day” category that will contain the daily event kind of stuff that are interesting/useful mainly to myself. I plan to add another column that will contain recent books read, movies watched, and music listened to.

weblog jumping tracks

Well, I *had* my new weblog up and running, until the new hard drive crashed. I put in one of the old ones and have my blog box operational again. After much work, I got my old weblog entries (and comments) imported into the new system, and this be it. Still working on the layout and design, but this is the log’s new home.